Power outage affects Sea-Tac flights

Power outage affects Sea-Tac flights

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Story Published: Dec 15, 2006 at 11:45 PM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 16, 2006 at 1:34 PM PDT

By Associated Press

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SEATAC, Wash. (AP) - Many flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were canceled or delayed Friday, stemming from a power outage apparently caused by a strong windstorm that blew through the region.

A Federal Aviation Administration office that tracks planes was shut down from about 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. so its operations could be transferred to another control center in nearby Auburn, airport spokeswoman Rachel Garson said.

The FAA office had been operating on emergency power, but its generator apparently "ran out of fuel," she said.

That Terminal Radar Approach Control building is where air-traffic controllers communicate with all flights within 25 miles of the airport. Once flights are within a 5-mile radius, communication is transferred to the air-traffic control tower.

But the problems actually began much earlier. Separately from the FAA outage, the airport's south end lost power at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, and many flights were canceled or delayed beginning about that time, affecting "thousands" of passengers, Garson said.

The outage affected ticketing counters, several baggage-claim carousels, the baggage handling area and the A gates, where American and Delta airlines flights arrive and depart.

The South Satellite terminal, which is connected to the main terminal by a subway, also briefly lost power but electricity was restored with back-up generators, Garson said.

"A lot of the morning departures didn't happen, and that was either because they didn't have an aircraft here because it didn't land overnight or because they didn't have baggage handling," Garson told The Seattle Times. And "there were lots of delays."

She estimated about 110 flights were affected during the morning, and another 80 or so during the FAA office shutdown.

Because of the FAA outage, a nationwide "ground stop" was issued for flights bound for Sea-Tac, FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said. But by 7 p.m. Friday, flight delays were 10 minutes or less, he said.

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